BlissC Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 At the moment (as at 13/12/08) I'm fairly new to PDN and to creating stuff from scratch. I've been editing and fixing photos for a fair while, using Paint Shop Pro and more recently Photoshop Elements, and making smileys and animated smileys (mainly using PSP and Animation Shop), but after my old laptop died taking a lot of software with it, I downloaded PDN and started playing. These are the results of my experiments... Exploding planet ...naturally, from the "exploding planets" tutorial... Sig & Avatar Avatar is a combination of the 'chrystalline' sig tutorial and the various chrome tutorials. The sig is mainly stock photos run through the 'pencil sketch' effect, apart from the plaque with the "Bliss" lettering, which is from the "Make some gold text!" tutorial and then converted to black and white. Filmstrip Business Card This is a business card I did for one of my web design clients, using the "How to make a picture filmstrip" tutorial, which was the first PDN tutorial I attempted, to match a version of the filmstrip I did for the photo gallery on their website. (Address details blurred to protect the innocent :wink:) Forum banner images These are images I'm working on for my forum's banner. The current one is very badly pixellated in places and poorly anti-aliased. The banner's a work-in-progress, which will (hopefully) be ready for unveiling in January... Original logo (yes, it really is this bad!) New logo (the final version on the banner's on a blue background, but I've left this on the chequered background for now. From the "New and improved 3D text/logo tutorial") Other graphics The forum's a medical support forum, so all of the images in some way relate specifically to the condition. This first one's the medication that's prescribed for the condition. Anyone with the condition will instantly recognise the pills, because they're universally prescribed, and whatever brand the pharmacist dispenses, they all look like this. Of course the main shape was achieved using the Shape 3D plugin, with the transparent half of the capsule done using the same base image as the other end, but with a fair amount of transparency. The 'sprinkles' inside the capsules are done again using S3D to create a small sphere, and then loading a .png of the sphere into the 'Custom Brushes' plugin and simply 'stamping' them rather than a lot of tedius copying and pasting. I first saw a sphere similar to this glass ball on another website somewhere a few weeks ago, and after I'd worked my way through some of the PDN tutorials I began to wonder if it would be possible to recreate it. The glass ball itself is produced using the "Glassy Marbles" tutorial, and the figures around the ball were isolated from a stock photo of a paperchain at stock.xchng, and wrapped around the ball using S3D. The final one's the one one I'm most pleased with - my syringe. It's made using a combination of a couple of sig tutorials ("BarkBark00-Style Signature Tutorial" and "shiny things, verndewd style siggy"), a combination of the various "chrome" tutorials, and some of the techniques from the "glassy marbles" tutorial. 100% PDN, no stock used at all, and though I'm distinctly still a n00b when it comes to PDN, I think it's come out very well for a first attempt at anything so complex. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jiZer Posted December 13, 2008 Share Posted December 13, 2008 Awesome! did you spent much time on this? Quote Simplicity ftw! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PyroTechniques Posted December 21, 2008 Share Posted December 21, 2008 The syringe is excellent, just one question: the body of the syringe almost looks like it's angle toward the viewer, but the plunger top and the little thing below it (on the stem of the plunger) are angled the other direction. Change that, possibly? If you saved the .pdn file before flattening it should be a piece of cake. Quote Photobucket Sucks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlissC Posted December 26, 2008 Author Share Posted December 26, 2008 Awesome! did you spent much time on this? I think it was about three days altogether, some aspects of PDN are still quite new to me, and then a few more tweaks when I spotted things I could neaten up a little - drove my crazy trying to work it out until I could figure out how to do all the various bits, so I just kept plugging away until it came together. As I said, I was using mainly BarkBark and Verndewd's tuts for the chrome bits and barrel of the syringe, along with Ash's chrome method for bits, and there was a pic I'd seen in the Pictorium (I think it might have been another of Ash's creations) that prompted me to think it was do-able. The forum's a medical support forum, and at the moment the forum banner's mainly stock photos of people, but I wanted something more specific to the forum itself. The main treatments for the condition are lumbar puncture (spinal taps), hence the syringe, medication (hence the orange pills, as any sufferer will instantly recognise those), and surgery, so my latest creation's a sticking plaster which I converted from a Photoshop tutorial. There's a scalpel that goes with it, but the scalpel's not come out so well, so I'm still playing about with that aspect of it. The syringe is excellent, just one question: the body of the syringe almost looks like it's angle toward the viewer, but the plunger top and the little thing below it (on the stem of the plunger) are angled the other direction. Change that, possibly? If you saved the .pdn file before flattening it should be a piece of cake. Yep, I noticed that. It's one of the things I intend to fix before I launch the final version on the forum. I've still got the original un-flattened .pdn (26 layers) - when I originally did it I got the angle/twist on plunger and other little thing (I didn't know what to call it either, but it's the thing you hook your fingers under) slightly off, and I forgot to correct it before I finished it off. This is the latest one - the one representing surgery. The blue "cut" looks rather pixellated on here as I can't find where I've filed the original .pdn for it and copied and resized the 'cut' layer from the banner instead (it's the resizing that's done it I think). The plaster's from a Photoshop tutorial I found, and figured out how to do the central pad/dressing area using the bevel plugin, and re-create the texture of the plaster using the grid/checkerboard maker plugin. I know the 'cut' looks out of place here, but on the banner, which has a blue background, it blends in with the background gradient okay. Plaster Surgery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goonfella Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 You`ve got some nice images here. I especially like the glass ball paperchain and how you`ve made it 3D. Quote   Please feel free to visit my Gallery on PDNFans And my Alternatives to PDN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HELEN Posted December 26, 2008 Share Posted December 26, 2008 You should keep working on PDN because your work is a pleasure to look at. I love the syringe, yet your other images are just as great! Quote Don't spit into the well, you might drink from it later. -----Yiddish ProverbGlossy Galaxy Ball---How to Make FoliageMy Gallery PDN Fans--My DA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlissC Posted December 26, 2008 Author Share Posted December 26, 2008 Thanks! 8) Until recently I really just used PSP for tidying up photos, and occasionally Photoshop Elements, but found that quite limiting, especially with Photoshop Elements and not being able to work at pixel level, which I used to do a lot creating smileys, and hence I went off looking for an alternative...and of course found PDN! After finding PDN and all the great tuts here and the fabulous stuff here in the Pictorium etc., I thought I'd have a go, and I'm really enjoying creating my own stuff rather than just using stock photos and stuff, and even getting ideas for making my smileys look more 'polished'. I'm well and truly hooked! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlissC Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 The syringe edited to try and get the angles on the plunger right... The "Happy New Year" image I did for my forum from the "Novice Signature" tut, using custom brushes with some snowflake brushes from the "custom brush sharing" thread... ...and fork and tape measure, again one of the images I've done for my forum banner (hence the tape measure being cropped at the top and bottom of the pic, as it's designed to fit on the banner)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oma Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 great looking gallery. I love seeing how Paint.net is being used for some real applications. excellent work all around. ciao OMA Quote  My Deviant Art Gallery Oma's Paint.Net gallery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HELEN Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 :shock: Those images are just so beautiful! Awesome job!!! Quote Don't spit into the well, you might drink from it later. -----Yiddish ProverbGlossy Galaxy Ball---How to Make FoliageMy Gallery PDN Fans--My DA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlissC Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 Thanks. 8) I love seeing how Paint.net is being used for some real applications. I'm aiming for 100% PDN on the new version of the banner (the current one's 100% stock photos and not too good looking at the moment). Early reactions to the work in progress from my moderators has been positive, and I'm enjoying using it for something "real" rather than just doing stuff for the sake of doing it, though I'm having fun trying out some of the fun stuff as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlissC Posted February 12, 2009 Author Share Posted February 12, 2009 Well I've not had much time to play on PDN recently due to the pressures of work, but at the moment I'm working on a Valentine's image for my forum (for our "topic of the week" feature) and decided to use the "A way to make...Insides!" abstract/texture for the background of it. I've discovered, while trying to soften the effect after the crystallisation a little that surprisingly the Splinter plugin (with default settings) seems to make it softer and somehow a little more "visceral" somehow. I'm not sure yet whether it's going to work with what I have planned for the image, but I'll post it if it seems any good, but this is the effect of running Splinter after finishing the "insides" tut... Before... After... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oma Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 I like that. good tip. thanks. ciao OMA Quote  My Deviant Art Gallery Oma's Paint.Net gallery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlissC Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 Unfortunately it didn't quite work out as a background for what I was intending. After playing around with clouds and waves and twists and stuff, and some shapes and bevels and the gold text tut, I ended up with this... ...still a little rough around the edges at the moment, and I'll probably tidy it up a bit more at some point, as I'm planning on using some of the various pieces I've done over the last couple of months or so for a range of cards to raise funds for a charity I'm involved with, but this is the current state of it - version 1 anyhow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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